USBSI Takes Proactive Action to Help Merchants Meet PCI Compliance Requirements

City of Industry, CA Jun 03, 2010 – To promote the security of the credit and debit card data being presented into the payment systems, the five major card brands – Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®, Discover® Network and JCB® – established the Payment Card Industry Council to oversee the Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS). Merchants accepting debit or credit cards are required to become PCI compliant within varied timeframes determined by the volume of card transactions processed annually. Adhering to PCI requirements can help protect merchants’ against data breaches and preserve their reputations while providing customers with additional data protection.

As a top-ranked merchant service provider of credit card processing, U.S. Bankcard Services, Inc. (USBSI) is proactively assisting merchants with understanding the need for PCI while providing professional consultancy service to assist merchants with validating PCI-DSS compliance. USBSI, in cooperation with Elavon and Trustwave, Elavon’s Authorized Scanning Vendor (ASV), provides a PCI compliance service geared towards level 4 merchants’ needs that includes access to a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) – a required component for validating PCI compliance. USBSI has built a dedicated “PCI Service Team” to assist merchants with this process, and is conducting PCI notifications in a number of languages such as, Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

Because PCI compliance rules vary according to processors, USBSI suggests each merchant contact its own processor to determine what is applicable, or contact USBSI at 1-888-888-8USA (8872) any time for inquiry. USBSI offers additional services which can be viewed on our website (www.usbsi.com) or just call 1-888-888-8USA (8872).

About PCI
All card processing merchants are categorized into four (4) levels based on the Visa transaction volume during the past twelve (12) months: Level 1 are Merchants who process more than 6 million transactions per year; Level 2 are Merchants who process between 1 million and 6 million transactions per year; Level 3 are Merchants who process between 20,000 and 1 million e-commerce transactions per year; Level 4 are Merchants who process up to 1 million transactions or up to 20,000 e-commerce transactions per year. Level 4 merchants must complete a PCI-DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ). PCI-DSS compliance varies by merchant based on their transaction volume.

For a full sample of a Self-Assessment Questionnaire, please see the “PCI SAQ B” portion at http://www.usbsi.com/Index.php/pci-compliance.